Current ten most volatile stocks in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 indexes:

Top Ten S&P 500 Most Volatile Stocks:

Symbol

YTD Volatility

Last Year

SVU

1.015

0.52

FSLR

0.763

0.66

ANR

0.715

0.721

NFLX

0.691

0.701

SHLD

0.615

0.567

PCS

0.595

0.655

ANF

0.554

0.512

GNW

0.545

0.656

AMD

0.53

0.548

PHM

0.52

0.584

Top Ten NASDAQ 100 Most Volatile Stocks:

Symbol

YTD Volatility

Last Year

GMCR

0.968

0.867

FSLR

0.763

0.66

NIHD

0.698

0.419

NFLX

0.691

0.701

VRTX

0.621

0.5

SHLD

0.615

0.567

RIMM

0.574

0.618

ILMN

0.481

0.575

CTRP

0.474

0.465

APOL

0.464

0.368

YTD calculations are as of 12/10/2012, executed on daily data since 12/31/2011 (current) and 12/31/2010-12/31/2011 (last year). Volatility as calculated is the annualized standard deviation of lognormal daily returns.

The intense summer drought has brought about a high volatility rally in nearly every US-based grain contract. Of greatest note is the price of corn, which leads the U.S. market in terms of planted acres, revenue, and therefore sensitivity to drought conditions. Second to the corn crop are soybeans, which have also experienced dramatic moves to the upside in the last several weeks.

Presented below is a rolling 90-day realized volatility chart for spot Corn, from May 1, 2012 to present day:

Here are the current 90-day realized volatility values for Corn, Wheat, and Soybeans:

Grain

90-Day Volatility

Corn

38.07%

Wheat

36.92%

Soybeans

31.36%

For comparison purposes, the current 90-day realized volatility of the S&P500 Index is a mere 15.28%.

All calculations are as of 8/20/2012, executed on daily data since 5/1/2012.

As the European debt crisis once again makes headlines, with no indications of a quick solution on the horizon, the US equity market has reacted by suffering from a bout of increased volatility. Should there be any doubt as to why, correlation of the S&P 500 to the Euro has been increasing as well. Below, we present a chart showing rolling 90 day realized volatility of the S&amp500 index (red line) along with rolling 90-day S&P 500 correlation to the Euro currency (blue line).

All calculations are as of 5/22/2012, executed on daily data since 4/1/2012.